Max HeyraudA new film about youth, drugs and rave culture in 1990s Northern Ireland has premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Skintown, directed by Kieron J. Walsh and adapted by Ciarán McMenamin from his 2018 novel, is set in Enniskillen during the summer of 1994, as the announcement of an IRA ceasefire briefly suggests that life in Northern Ireland could be about to change. The film had its world premiere in competition at Edinburgh on August 16th.
The film stars Jack Rowan, Chris Walley, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, Hope Ikpoku Jnr, Martin McCann, Gerard Jordan, Tara Lynne O’Neill, Lalor Roddy, Roisin Gallagher, Michael Smiley and more.
Set during a period when Northern Ireland’s underground dance culture was offering young people a rare space to forget the conflict around them, Skintown uses clubs, drugs and the music of the era to capture a generation caught between the Troubles and the possibility of peace.
The film culminates around a club night and beach afterparty, with its soundtrack drawing on artists including The Prodigy, Jeff Mills, Happy Mondays and Elastica.
Carl Cox also contributes in a particularly fitting way, supplying Skintown with previously unreleased music. The film’s portrayal of Northern Ireland’s rave scene includes Kellys in Portrush, where Cox performed in 1994, giving his contribution a direct connection to the era the film recreates.
A wider cinema release has not yet been announced.
